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Tesla to increase Model 3 power and top speed in upcoming software update

Tesla Model 3s competing at TeslaCorsa event in Buttonwillow Raceway Park, CA [Credit: Tesla Corsa]

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Tesla’s Model 3 fleet will get an increase in power through an upcoming over-the-air firmware update, slated for sometime in March. Model 3 Performance will also see its top speed increase by 7 mph or 10 km/h.

“Firmware update coming later this month will increase power by ~5% & top speed by 10 km/h or 7mph,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Saturday afternoon via Twitter.

Musk’s tweet further validates the company’s recent announcement that Model 3 Long Range with rear-wheel drive will soon get an increase in range from 310 miles to 325 miles per single charge, while the top speed for Model 3 Performance will increase from 155 mph (250 km/h) to 162 mph (261 km/h) through a number of upcoming firmware upgrades.

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Update: Top speed for Tesla Model S will also be raised to 162 mph, according to Elon Musk. Although Musk didn’t indicate which version of the Model S will be eligible for the firmware update with improvement to top speed, one can presume that it’ll be Model S Performance which is currently limited to 155 mph.

“We’d electronically limited the Model 3 Performance to 155 mph. That was not a physical limit but an electronic limit. After a lot of testing, we now feel we can increase that limit by 10 km/h or 7 mph, and that just ends up being an rpm increase in the motors. The two motors just spin faster. I think they’re going somewhere along the lines of 19,000 rpm,” explained Musk during a call with the press following Tesla’s announcement of the $35,000 Model 3.

Other Model 3 variants including the Mid Range and Dual Motor Long Range will also be receiving the performance-boosting firmware update.

We’re particularly interested in seeing the impact this will have on the Tesla Model 3 Performance with track mode enabled. With an approximate 450 horsepower and 471 lb-ft of torque from its dual motors, Model 3 Performance will become an even greater dominating force on the track, especially with a 5% increase in power or roughly 23 horsepower.

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Tesla bear Guggenheim sees nearly 50% drop off in stock price in new note

Tesla bear Guggenheim does not see any upside in Robotaxi.

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tesla showroom
Credit: Tesla

Tesla bear Guggenheim is still among the biggest non-believers in the company’s overall mission and its devotion to solving self-driving.

In a new note to investors on Thursday, analyst Ronald Jewsikow reiterated his price target of $175, a nearly 50 percent drop off, with a ‘Sell’ rating, all based on skepticism regarding Tesla’s execution of the Robotaxi platform.

A few days ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Robotaxi platform would open to the public in September, offering driverless rides to anyone in the Austin area within its geofence, which is roughly 90 square miles large.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms Robotaxi is opening to the public: here’s when

However, Jewsikow’s skepticism regarding this timeline has to do with what’s going on inside of the vehicles. The analyst was willing to give props to Robotaxi, saying that Musk’s estimation of a September public launch would be a “key step” in offering the service to a broader population.

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Where Jewsikow’s real issue lies is with Tesla’s lack of transparency on the Safety Monitors, and how bulls are willing to overlook their importance.

Much of this bullish mentality comes from the fact that the Monitors are not sitting in the driver’s seat, and they don’t have anything to do with the overall operation of the vehicle.

Musk also said last month that reducing Safety Monitors could come “in a month or two.”

Instead, they’re just there to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Jewsikow said:

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“While safety drivers will remain, and no timeline has been provided for their removal, bulls have been willing to overlook the optics of safety drivers in TSLA vehicles, and we see no reason why that would change now.”

He also commented on Musk’s recent indication that Tesla was working on a 10x parameter count that could help make Full Self-Driving even more accurate. It could be one of the pieces to Tesla solving autonomy.

Jewsikow added:

“Perhaps most importantly for investors bullish on TSLA for the fleet of potential FSD-enabled vehicles today, the 10x higher parameter count will be able to run on the current generation of FSD hardware and inference compute.”

Elon Musk teases crazy new Tesla FSD model: here’s when it’s coming

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Tesla shares are down just about 2 percent today, trading at $332.47.

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Tesla Model 3 hits quarter million miles with original battery and motor

The Model 3’s Battery Management System (BMS) shows a State of Health between 88% and 90%.

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(Credit: Tesla Asia/Twitter)

A Western Australian Tesla Model 3 has captured global attention after racking up an impressive 410,000 kilometers (254,000 miles) on its original battery and motor, while still retaining around 90% of its original battery health.

Long-term Model 3

The 2021 Model 3 Standard Plus, equipped with a 60 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, has been in constant use as an Uber rideshare vehicle. According to Port Kennedy EV specialist EV Workz, the car’s Battery Management System (BMS) shows a State of Health between 88% and 90%.

EV Workz owner Edi Gutmanis shared the findings on Facebook’s Electric Vehicles For Australia page on August 8, and the post quickly went viral. As per Gutmanis, the Model 3’s charging history shows 15,556 kWh delivered via DC fast charging (29% of the total) and 38,012 kWh via AC charging (71% of the total). 

Gutmanis also broke down the fuel savings for the Model 3. A petrol car covering the same 410,000 km at 7L/100km and $1.70 per liter would cost an estimated AU$50,000 in fuel. By comparison, charging the Tesla using average commercial rates would be about AU$20,737 and just AU$13,000 if using Western Australia’s EV tariff. That’s a potential refueling saving of roughly $37,000, not including the avoided maintenance costs of an internal combustion engine.

Simple fix

The car came into EV Workz for a driveline “judder” issue, as per a report form EV Central Australia. Gutmanis found the real cause was simply worn motor mount bushes. After seven hours of labor and $130 in parts, “the car drives just as good as the first day it left the dealership,” Gutmanis said.

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Gutmanis, whose business also performs EV conversions on classics and 4x4s, says the results aren’t surprising. “We expect this sort of longevity with EV batteries,” he explained, though this is the highest-mileage Model 3 he has encountered in Australia.

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Mysterious covered Tesla Model Y fleet spotted in Giga Berlin

The vehicles were sighted during a recent drone flyover of the Germany-based Model Y production site.

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Credit: @TobiasLindh/YouTube

A fleet of mysterious covered Model Y units has been spotted at the Giga Berlin complex. The vehicles were sighted during a recent drone flyover of the Germany-based Model Y production site.

A mysterious fleet

The mysterious Model Y fleet was sighted by longtime Giga Berlin watcher Tobias Lindh, who has been chronicling the progress and activities of Tesla’s German factory complex for years. During his flyover on August 12, 2025, Lindh noted that he was able to spot a fleet of fully covered Model Y units being gathered in one section of the Giga Berlin site.

The presence of the covered Model Y units caught a lot of attention online, with numerous Tesla watchers speculating if the vehicles were the Model Y L or the yet-to-be-released Model Y Performance. Giga Berlin only produces Model Y units, after all, and both the Model Y L and Model Y Performance are yet to be rolled out by the electric vehicle maker.

Tesla Model Y Performance the Model Y L

The Model Y is Tesla’s best-selling vehicle by a mile, selling so well that it was able to become the world’s best-selling car by volume in 2023. With the changeover to the new Model Y this year, Tesla has only released the vehicle’s updated RWD and AWD versions. The updated Model Y Performance is yet to be released as of writing, though sightings of apparent Model Y Performance units have been reported on social media.

In recent weeks, however, the Model Y news cycle has been dominated by the upcoming release of the Model Y L, an extended wheelbase, six-seat version of the best-selling all-electric crossover. The Model Y L is expected to be produced in Giga Shanghai initially, though Giga Berlin, the Fremont Factory, and Giga Texas are also expected to produce the variant in the near future. 

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Check out Giga Berlin’s mysterious Model Y fleet in the video below.

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